Maybe I'm being a bit generous and, of course, I always recognize that I'm not the target audience for this show anymore, but I did enjoy this street story quite a bit. Aside from the format change-weirdness and the lesser humor focused curriculum, just about everything worked for me. Hooray!
The exciting aspect of Sesame Street having an ensemble cast is never knowing which characters are going to appear, and when. Of course, Elmo is going to be there 99% of the time these days, but man, what a treat it was seeing Prairie Dawn and Gladys the Cow. These are characters that, I'm sure, no one from Gen Alpha will recognize, but they used to have such a presence on the show.
Gladys didn't really have much of a chance to shine in this episode, unfortunately resorted to basically just a singer and friend of Elmo. Her huge personality doesn't necessarily come across here, but just seeing her is nice. I know that Jenn Barnhart can, and has done great work with her as well; possibly this script just didn't call for her Gladys' extravagance. Also, Barnhart does double-duty as Zoe in this episode, so major props for that.
Prairie really shines. Immensely. Stephanie D'Abruzzo has channeled the character in a beautiful way. Truly one of the best and most faithful Muppet-recasts in recent memory. Her assertiveness and confidence takes a pretty basic plot to comedic heights.
Sesame Street has such a rich backlog of great characters and talented performers, any time that they use them properly is admirable. I have no idea what Snuffy was doing at the top of this episode, but no complaining.
This street story really took me back to those late 80s-early 90s years of Sesame Street, where any given episode would star Fran Brill's Prairie Dawn or Richard Hunt's Gladys the Cow sharing the plot along with Kevin Clash's Elmo. Nowadays all of the performers have changed, but the idea that these characters are still alive and vital brings me great joy.
